Tag Archives: summer

Twenty ten was a hard year for me in terms of getting these laundry bags out. I was ridiculously late in doing so. Only two of the five seniors got their bags before they left for school. It was just a mess of things kept happening one after another. Pipe burst and flooded a good portion of the house, insurance company took their sweet time getting people to fix things up so there was just no room to make this stuff, work was crazy, I ended up going to Egypt for about three weeks for work at one point…the list goes on.

When I got back from Egypt (it was in the summer, not a fun time to go to Egypt), it was abundantly clear to me that I would not be able to finish all of them before school started. What’s more, is that four of them were going to semester based universities, instead of quarter, which meant they’d all be leaving in August. Even less time for me to work on the bags. So, I gave them out as I completed the bags and asked them to send pictures to me of them inside them.

Cow!

First up was the cow. I made this one for one of my girls whom I’d seen grow up from jr. high. I made the cow first because the recipient was the last to leave of the semester people and I had a clear idea of how I wanted this bag to look. This one was pretty easy to make and went pretty smoothly. I rather liked it. She got a cow because of her stuffed animal cow she brought with her to a few of the conferences we attended.

Bashful turtle!

Second was the bashful turtle. Only his tail stuck out. I had a clear idea of how this one should look too, so I made this one next. I had to mail it to the recipient though. She very nicely obliged my request to send me pictures of her inside her laundry bag. She got a turtle because she wanted turtles on the pillow that we were making one time as our Friday night craft. We…never finished the pillows.

Dignified camel.

Then came the camel. The kid just reminded me of a camel. So…I made him a camel. He doesn’t understand why I think he looks like a camel. Anyway, he was the only one going to a school on the quarter system, so I knew I could get this one out in time. It was also the last one I had a really clear mental image of how it should look. I had to revise the eyes a few times (it looked a bit like an alien at first) but overall, I was rather pleased with how it looked. He was a good sport and even put the photo of him inside his laundry bag as his Facebook profile picture for awhile. The comments it generated still make me laugh. (=

Then came the ill-fated whale. This one was the first laundry bag I made that wasn’t a typical cylindrical bag. It took two paper prototypes and a ruined cloth prototype before I got it right. And then…it got lost in the mail, along with some other stuff I had sent her. This made us both very sad. I had sent her the bag just before Thanksgiving and it should have gotten there right after the holiday. Never showed up. I waited a few weeks and it didn’t come back to me either. I figured it was just lost in the mail and I started another one. The photo you see is the third attempt that was completed early January. I gave it to her in person as she started school later than the rest. Since I gave it to her in person, I also took the photo of her inside her bag. Since it’s not a cylindrical bag, I figured it would be better to have her go in head first. Hehe. Incidentally, about a week after I finished the bag, the lost package came back to me. She has two whale laundry bags now. I think I have enough pictures of this one to do a tutorial too. Maybe I’ll write one in the future.

Propeller mushroom!

And finally, my brother’s. I made my brother’s laundry bag last (not counting the third time I made the whale) because he’s my brother and it’s easier to get things to him, and also I figured he wouldn’t mind as much to get a really late grad present. He got a propeller mushroom from Super Mario Wii. It took some calculating to get the mushroomy look, the brim of the hat, and also the propellers. They’re stiffened with some fusible interfacing, but without some wire the propellers won’t stand up on its own. I don’t have a better picture of it where you can see the whole mushroom with propellers. But still, I rather like it but I probably won’t do another one. Mushrooms are hard to make in laundry bag form.

Starting two years ago, I’ve been giving the most biggest, ginormous, hugest, and EMBARRASSING laundry bags to my graduating seniors (I help care for a bunch of jr. high and high school kids in my church group, I’m a counselor of sorts). The laundry bag part has to do with the fact that I believe that gifts should be useful. The fact that they are big, ginormous, and huge really has it’s roots in that it’s less fabric I need to cut and that I can use the whole width of the cloth, which also cuts down on the amount of scrap I have leftover. The fact that EMBARRASSING has to do with…well, because it’s me. Of course I’m going to make them strange and even EMBARRASSING.

Perhaps you’re wondering how embarrassing they could possibly be. I mean, really? Embarrassing to the point of being EMBARRASSING? Well, I’d like to think so and you can judge for yourself in a moment. They may not really be EMBARRASSING to the point where the kids hide it in the room they leave behind at home and the laundry bag never sees the light of day again. Actually, from what I’ve heard, a good number of them actually use their laundry bags as…laundry bags. Huzzah! Useful!

Anyway, that large circle I posted the tutorial for is how I make the bottoms of the bags (ok, sometimes with a template too, if I can find it). There’s really only one right now that does not follow the standard cylindrical bag shape, but I did have to make three of them. Um…it’s a long story. You can ask me about I if you want.

So, without further ado, I present you the biggest, ginormous, hugest, and EMBARRASSING laundry bags! CLICKY!